Pippin and Diamond
by HoshikoIzumi
Summary: This is a short story about Pippin and Diamond. It's short, sweet, with small bit of bitter-sweetness in it, from their relatioship from childhood to Diamond's death.


**Hey! I ACTUALLY WROTE THE PIPPIN AND DIAMOND ONE! That took months, and I apologize if anyone had wanted to see it sooner. But you see, I have been writing an original story and I had to put all of me fan fictions at a pause. I'm having writer's block from that story, though, so I decided to write this! Enjoy it, there's one more installment to go. Oh, and for those who said that it wasn't two years between when the hobbits left the Shire and when they returned, it was, because they spent a year on the mission and then another in Gondor.  ~ Hoshiko**

Pippin and Diamond

Peregrin Took giggled in glee as he played in the dirt next to the cart his mum was at. Young Peregrin was no more than ten years year old, the most innocent hobbit-lad you had ever seen. Playing next to him was an even younger Diamond of Long Cleeve, a delicate five years of age and the only hobbit-child a little more innocent than Pip. 

'Look Pip!' Diamond exclaimed pointing to a picture she had drawn into the ground with a stick. 'It's a kitty!' she then giggled madly and Peregrin's face, if it were possible, became even brighter. 

'Wow, that's good!' he said and took the stick she had been using. 'Watch me make a puppy!' she nodded and he made one, his tongue sticking from his mouth in very deep concentration. When he had finished it didn't look much different from her cat but she clapped all the same. 

'Yea! A puppy! I wish I could draw a puppy!' she exclaimed happily and, doing as her mother did to her father when she was extremely happy with him, pecked him on the cheek. Pippin succeeded in turning bright red and Diamond giggled, their mothers, now finished from bargaining at the cart, watching the ordeal. 

'Uh-oh,' Diamond's mother said, suppressing a laugh, 'it looks like I've been corrupting my daughter.' 

'No matter,' Eglantine, Pip's mother, said, sighing, 'I think they're going to be kissing in a few years anyway.' Pip and Diamond looked at each other and grimaced.

'Ew, mommy!' Pip exclaimed and stood up, 'I don't want to marry Diamond! She's my friend!' 

'All the same, you shan't be worrying about it now,' Mrs. Took said and took his hand, 'your da's going to be wondering where we are.' Pip looked to Diamond, who was picked up by her mum, and waved. 

'By Diamond!' he called and she gave him a big, toothy grin.

'By Pippin!' she called back and they went back to their respective homes. 

'Is a mug of beer inside this Took!' Pippin finished his song with Merry and proceeded to attempt to get off the table after he had a good laugh. He didn't succeed, and instead, as Merry did get to the ground on his feet, Pippin fell and pulled Merry down with him. 

'Ow, Pip!'

'Sorry, Merry!' Pippin apologized and Merry helped him up.

'How many have you had?' Merry asked and Pippin shrugged, taking a drink of ale had had somehow saved as he went down, and smiled innocently. 

'Two… Three… Seven,' he said proudly and Merry helped Pippin over to a free table. Pip's voice was already slurred, but Merry didn't care, he himself was getting there. He currently had eight in him. As he sat his eyes drifted over the pub and fell upon Estella. 'Merry, she'll come over and scream if you keep looking at her,' Pippin said, shaking an already shaky finger at his best friend and cousin, who shook his head.

'Oh, I know. Believe me Pip, if anyone knows of her temper it's me. She has never forgiven me since I pulled her hair that one day…' he said dreamily and Pippin rolled his eyes, smacking him in the shoulder. 

'Come along, then, there are many other nice hobbit lasses in the Shire!'

'If you're getting the idea that I like her you're wrong. I can't stand her voice.' 

'Yeah, yeah,' Pip took another swig of beer and shook his head. He feared for Merry's physical well being if he were to like Estella. After a moment a familiar face bounded over to the two, a mug of ale in her own hand. 

'Hello, Pip, Merry!' she said cheerfully and Pippin grinned back. 

'Hello, Diamond!' 

'You know, if you keep looking at her she's going to yell,' Diamond said pointedly to Merry, who had gone back to Estella and Merry finally turned about. 

'I know, I know.' 

'So, tomorrow's going to be a good day,' Diamond said and Merry lifted his eyebrows. 

'Oh?'

'Sure, me da's legs don't hurt, so there isn't going to be rain. It'd be a good day to harvest some crops, if you get me meaning,' she said and winked and Pippin nodded, slamming his mug on the table. 

'I knew it! Merry, are you thinking what I'm thinking?'

'Farmer Maggot?'

'Who else?' Pippin asked and Merry nodded. 

'You beat me to it, Pip,' he said and Pippin turned back to Diamond. 

'You can have part of my profits if you want,' he said and Diamond nodded. 

'All right, I'll meet you in the forest outside his corn, then,' she said and Pippin nodded. 

'That sounds brilliant,' he said and Diamond flashed a smile.

'Then it's settled. See you tomorrow Pippin!' she called as she got up and walked away from the table, and Pippin waved his hand, a little more weakly than normal. He took a drink of his ale and was surprised to see Merry staring at him, grinning rather lopsidedly. 

'What?' he asked confused, and Merry chuckled. 

'A little bit of a fancy?' he asked and Pippin's face grew red. 

'No!' he exclaimed and Merry shook his head. 

'Right, Pip,' he said and took another draught from his mug. It was a face that annoyed Pippin to no end, but he couldn't help but laugh. 

'I don't!' he proclaimed, and Merry nodded. 

'Of course, Pip.' Merry put his mug down and grabbed his cousin's arm. 'C'mon, we're going to busy tomorrow.' 

It was the year 1421 and Diamond shook her head as she watched Estella peer at Merry and Peregrin from behind a tree. She walked up to the other hobbit-lass, ten years her senior, and shook her head again. 

'Why don't you just go talk to him?' she asked, frightening Estella a great deal. 

'Are you insane?' Estella asked through her teeth and looked back at him. 'People with talk.' 

'You've never cared about that before,' Diamond said and Estella sighed. 'What is it, really?'

'He hates me.' 

'No he doesn't.' 

'So why don't you go talk to Pippin?' Estella asked sharply and Diamond was taken slightly aback. 

'What?'

'You fancy Pip, don't you?' a grin pulled at Diamond's lips and she couldn't help but laugh. 

'Pippin? Peregrin Took?' she burst out in laughter and Estella looked a bit miffed. 

'Well fine, you act like it,' she said and Diamond seized Estella's hand. 

'Come along, then, time to talk to him,' she said and pulled her over to the two. She hadn't really talked to Pip since the day before he had disappeared with Sam, Frodo, and Merry. They had been presumed dead, and Diamond had been the one to come back worried, for they had failed to meet her. 

Diamond only let Estella go when they had reached the two and she tapped Pippin on the shoulder. 

'Hello, Pip!' she exclaimed and nearly tackled him in a hug. The armor he wore was a bit hard, but she paid no attention to it. 

'Diamond, wonderful greeting, as always,' he said, laughing and they talked for some time, as Estella apologized to Merry about her previous behavior to him. As Diamond talked she became a bit alarmed. Maybe… just maybe… she did have feelings for Pippin… an odd thought… but he was a bit more welcoming than ever before. Maybe he had grown a bit on the adventure he had had, and the idea was quite appealing to her.

'I still can't believe you caught that bouquets,' Diamond said and Pippin laughed. They were lying together in bed, finished of a busy night. Diamond had loved him, and she realized it now, her happiness still coming from his impish grin and excitable nature. He seemed to feel the same about her with her out-going personality and wit. In fact she could finish his sentences and crack a joke as well as the best. And when he said the best, he meant Merry. 

'I couldn't help it,' he said, shaking his head, 'it was just there. I have unnatural reflexes now.' Diamond rolled her eyes and sighed. He always liked to tell of his adventures, and she had heard every one he had ever embarked on. 

'Bloody orcs,' she giggled and Pippin nodded. 

'Yes, too bad you never got to see the eagles. They were something.' 

'You're a true Took,' she said after a pause and Pippin looked at her.

'So are you.' 

'How so, lad?' Diamond asked, cocking her head and Pippin shrugged. 

'You're the only lass I know of that was brave enough to go near Maggot's crops with us.' Diamond thought of this for a moment and shook her head. 

'Our children are going to be a job,' she muttered and Pippin nodded. 

'Aye, true…' he said quietly and chuckled. 'As is his kids, if they're anything like us, and so on until all hobbits have a bit of Took in all of them. Then the orcs will have to stay under the mountains.' 

A tear made it's way down Pippin's cheek. He was a middle-aged hobbit now and his son, Faramir, had just had his coming-of-age party. But now there was no music or food or drinking. There was Diamond, in a bed, extremely ill. He had done all he could and now he was holding her hand. She had been like this for weeks now, and she was only sixty-eight, not an age for any hobbit to fall ill. 

'What's that about, then?' she asked weakly and he wiped it off his face with his free hand. 

'Nothing,' he assured her, smiling. There was no feeling behind that smile and she shook her head. She was deathly pale and weak, and Pippin feared she wouldn't last much longer. 

'Don't be crying now. I'm nothing to be doing that about.'

'But you're so young,' Pippin said, and his voice caught in his throat. He couldn't help it; he needed to cry. 

'But I've lived a happy life. We were such dear friends for all of it, and more after a while. I've lived to see my son come of age; I'm just leaving it to you to find a perfect match for Faramir. I don't want you to cry, you're too sweet of a hobbit to be doing that.' She coughed and shook her head when she had finished. 'Bloody cough.' 

'Just get rest,' Pippin said softly and sniffed. Diamond nodded and pressed herself into her pillow. She had not been asleep more than two minutes when another cough shook her. Her eyes opened only slightly, too weak to do much more and she breathed in deeply. 

'I love you,' she said quietly and let her breath out. It had the calm serenity of a brook falling fast over the rocks and pebbles it ran over. It was her final one, and Pippin reached his hand out and caressed her face. 

'I love you too,' he said quietly and broke down in true tears. After a moment he heard someone at the door. He was in his bedroom in Crickhollow, the place he shared with Merry and Estella, and when he looked over he found his best friend standing there. 

'Pip…' he said quietly and Pippin looked at his friend of many years. 

'She just left…' he said quietly, 'just a second ago…' Merry hurried over to Pip and put a comforting arm around his shoulders. 

'It's ok, Pip… we'll… I'll call for a burial today,' he said and Pip nodded.

'Can I stay here?' Merry chuckled at this and nodded. 

'Who do you take me for, Maggot? Of course you can stay, just don't be stealing my mushrooms.' Pippin laughed through his tears and with a final word of consent Merry left to do the thing he had just promised he'd do. With his toe he drew in the dust under the bed. Diamond being ill, Pip hadn't cleaned the room himself and he had refused to let Estella do it. When he had finished he smiled a faint smile and held his wife's hand firmly in his.

'Look, Diamond… a puppy…' 


End file.
